The Hentai System

An ultimate “deal with the devil” story, where instead of the usual dark lord, the main antagonist is a flaky RPG system. The NTR system trades off in an evil fashion, but the hero just happens to have a higher value for his “talent” than normal, so he’s just best at this stuff.

So the ‘Suffering’ resource that others may have stored away might be generated by the Protagonist in especially intense and emotional scenes. This resource can then be used to cast the more powerful versions of his ability. The talent of the Protagonist could act as a multiplier for his ability to generate this special resource.

The result is an unusual pacing where moments of intense drama are also moments of resource gathering for the character. Rather than simply reading through a scene of the character dealing with heartbreak, for example, he is grinding for Grief Crystals. The unusual blend of genres to create this world is, to some people’s minds, fascinating in its audacity.

From an ethics perspective, it is best to read novels through official channels like Webnovel where the author and translator can earn money from their work. Many readers read novels on aggregators, however, because official channels can be restrictive and cost too much to read long novels. I’m not saying that readers should go look for pirated copies of novels online (there are already plenty of discussion on the ethics of that), but I understand why people do it. If you do decide to read novels through official channels, you get to read novels consistently without ads (save for the ads from the reading app itself), and you support the creation of more novels. If a novel is particularly good, reading it through an official channel supports the platform on which it was published, and thus encourages the platform to license more novels of a similar style. Reading the first chapter or two of a novel on the official app is the cleanest way to read a novel.

There is this Marvel Impregnation System story that has been brought up in a few online forums for people who like crossover fanfics that are generally very superhero action oriented but with a twist. Finding free reads can be hard because most big hosting sites are protected by copyright, but I have found a few places where fans share their work. The free stories on Archive of Our Own (AO3) and FanFiction.net are good places to start, especially if you search for things like ‘Marvel AU’ or ‘alternative powers’. I’ve also heard that some Webnovel platforms allow users to post their own work, but be aware that the quality can vary wildly.

There are also plenty of fanfiction communities on Discord and in subreddits like r/FanFiction. People will sometimes post links to a Google Doc or to their personal blog where they have put up a story that they are still writing. Be cautious of free looking websites that promise downloads and which are likely to contain malware. However, authors who have written stories that are part of the Marvel Impregnation System often set up a Patreon or a Tumblr and put up the first part of their stories for free to get people hooked. It can take some time and digging through very specific communities of fans of offbeat alternate universes, but there are tons of other great stories about Marvel characters too, some of which are equally as wild and off the wall.

Most conversations about these kinds of sites seem to assume users have fast, unlimited internet. Many users use far more bandwidth than they realize, especially with constant ad loading and clicking through a stack of redirects on a pirate site. A clean and efficient streaming service uses bandwidth in a much more predictable way. In many cases users on metered connections can end up paying real money in overage fees on a site that offers the service for free. The efficiency of official apps and websites is a real feature that has considerable value to many users around the world.

My two cents: Chapter 7 writing improved dramatically. Sharper dialogue and more vivid descriptions of scenes. I wonder if the author has suddenly “hit his stride” or if someone else is suddenly contributing to the writing. Perhaps, it is a collaboration that started with one writer and has recently been influenced by a writer friend who is more technically sound. These kinds of style changes occur frequently in online serials because the author receives feedback immediately and the writer adapts to that feedback as he writes. The author is not a fixed entity. Rather, he is a process.

Ignoring star ratings on popular platforms and reading one-star reviews is basically a side job I do to find good character-driven stories among the deluge of recent publications. Often the only indicator for me that a highly hyped novel is actually character-driven are the same complaints that every other novel receives: ‘too much talking’, ‘not enough action’, ‘boring buildup’.

It was a novel by a relatively unknown author. According to the reviews on bigger sites, it was actually really bad. People would say that instead of having the demon lord conquer the world, he'd be cursed to feel the pain and suffering of every living thing. He meets a human knight who is emotionally numb because of trauma from his past. Together, they have a romance. The plot of the novel is the development of their relationship, and their relationship is that he tries to help her feel emotions and she helps him to develop emotional barriers that would allow him to function. The physical intimacy between the two is a deep form of communication for her, but extremely intense and even terrifying for him. The author handles it surprisingly sensitively.

I have another one of these ‘wish fulfillment’ novels that relies on a gimmick to carry it. This guy is assigned by a system to try to get a bunch of women to marry him. The novel follows the guy as he tries to juggle the different women, and the interactions with each of their unique personalities. At the same time, he is struggling to keep track of the different lies he has to tell to each of the women in order to continue his relationship with them, all while trying to complete the system’s various tasks in order to earn more money, skills, or items. Essentially, this novel is a harem-style anime translated into Chinese webnovel format and packaged with all of the typical tropes. You won’t find any complex character studies or even healthy relationships in this novel. In stead, it is a rather usual ‘power up’ style of fantasy in which the protagonist uses a cheat code in order to gain wealth and status. The quality of writing can vary depending on the translation, so it might be a bit of a challenge to find a good version. However, after a while the plot really starts to repeat itself. The only thing that is really different from one ‘target’ to the next is the way in which the system assigns them to the protagonist. In the end, it is a pretty average read that is perfect for someone looking to pass the time with a novel that is similar to this in style, but not exactly good.

Looking at purely accessible production values (ie: good anime with decent plots and nice animation) then titles from the last 5-10 years would be best for a beginner. Before then there were titles, yes, but they’re rough by today’s standards. So maybe make a filter for ‘titles from the last 5 years’ and pick the most popular one to start with.

A previous thread seems to have forgotten the huge amount of time to invest into most of the VN’s out there. ‘Muv-Luv Alternative’ already reads like ‘War and Peace’ in novel length, and ‘The Fruit of Grisaia’ already is a trilogy of huge games. That’s why I prefer to read kinetic novels without any choice in the first place, or even shorter VNs of very good quality instead of getting stuck in huge games that would take a casual player weeks to even months to complete.

Many visual novels are novels. ‘Muv-Luv Alternative’ is like reading ‘War and Peace’ twice. Even ‘The Fruit of Grisaia’ trilogy consists of three very long games. So, unless you are a very dedicated reader, you have to prepare for a very long time to read all the visual novels you want to. That’s why I prefer kinetic novels (no choices) or shorter novels (even if they are not as good). For example, ‘Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet’ (a 5-hour long kinetic novel that is set in a post-apocalyptic world where a museum robot recounts the events leading up to the apocalypse) and ‘Emily is Away’ (a nostalgic simulation of early 2000s chat clients, with a powerful and concise story) are much better examples of the medium than the typical harem-style game with 100 hours of gameplay. So, if you are new to the medium, I would recommend starting with a shorter, highly-rated game, as your ‘top’ game might be the one you actually finish.

I looked into the psychology of the “fast pass” system and it’s really cool how it can turn reading into a game in which you get a hit of dopamine not only from the story but also from unlocking the next chapter. In the case of My Vampire System, a story about a game-like system, the meta-layer is almost funny. By gamifying the consumption of a gamified story, the platform has created a sort of double game which can be enjoyed by the user who is able to see through it or it can be seen as manipulative and be resented by the user. I chose to lean into it and set little goals for myself to read in certain amounts and then I would reward myself with the next chapter of the story. The experience of reading My Vampire System was more engaging on another level because it was no longer just reading a story, I was participating in a structure that I had set up for myself. Not everyone will enjoy this but for those who do enjoy progression in games, they may find this aspect of the website to be strangely satisfying.